No one who has read a science fiction novel can dispute mankind has had a long standing love affair with the dream of robotics – with examples varying from the comically depressed Marvin to the homicidal Terminator. However, in recent years, what were once sci-fi pipe dreams are rapidly becoming a reality, as exemplified by DARPA’s Cheetah robot recently breaking the legged robot land speed record – and beating Usain Bolt’s own speed record in the process.
Enter iRobot.
The US-based firm, a well-established robot manufacturer in its own right, has dropped $74m to acquire rival robot developer and mobile phone operator Vodafone-backed Evolution Robotics.
Vodafone’s Ventures unit participated in Evolution’s series B round in 2008, which raised $13.9m, and was joined in participation by venture capital firm CMEA Ventures and start-up investor Idealab.
While Evolution may not be churning out the PackBot Tactical Mobile Robots that iRobot has been deploying in Iraq and Afghanistan, Evolution has been etching its way into the lucrative consumer market.
Once the mainstay of 1950s futurologists, Evolution’s primary product is the Mint automatic floor cleaning robot. Evolution has been nicely cutting itself a hefty chunk of the consumer market that will pay anything to avoid pushing the hoover around themselves; tallying up to around $20m revenues in 2011.
The real worth of this deal, however, may come in the form of patents –the development of which doubtless has been of interest to Vodafone’s corporate venturing unit.
Colin Angle, chairman and chief executive officer of iRobot, in a conference call said: “With iRobot developed technology plus that acquired through Evolution and license from InTouch Health, we’ve built a formidable robotic IP [intellectual property] portfolio that further widens our competitive mount.
“Through this acquisition, iRobot is acquiring 31 issued US patents, 24 pending US patents, 15 international issued patents, and 18 pending international patents.”
In terms of revenue, Angle expected “2012 revenue in the ballpark of 2011”.
Holding key patents to the industry has its benefits as a manufacturer, for example in mobile electronics device maker Apple’s recent $1bn court victory over peer Samsung. If Angle expects consumer robots sales to accelerate to the levels seen in the author Isaac Asimov-inspired movie, iRobot, those patents could become more valuable.
In particular, iRobot covets Evolution’s navigational tools such as NorthStar and visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (vSLAM), which it is looking to integrate into its own products.
The patents may not just be used to strengthen iRobot’s new position in the consumer market, but could also be used to refine its military-focussed robotics. The firm has provided over 4,500 reconnaissance, bomb disposal, and other tactical robots worldwide. In the second quarter of 2012, iRobot’s defence and security contracts netted the firm $27m.
IRobot expects the acquisition will contribute $4m to6m in revenues during 2012, and an additional $22m to 24m in 2013. However, with robotics advancing so rapidly, it is hard to predict how valuable that position may be worth should robotics become as commonplace as fiction assumes.
Regarding the future of robotics, we spoke to Dmitry Grishin, the founder of venture capital firm Grishin Robotics and executive chairman of Russia-based internet services provider Mail.ru, who also sealed a robotics deal last week. Grishin backed US incubator Y Combinator graduate Double Robotics in a $250,000 deal.
Grishin said: “Robotics is going to disruptively change life of millions of people around the world and become a multi-billion market – and still it is on a rather early stage and offers good opportunity to enter into it now.”
He added: “Today, robotics has a unique ability to leverage plenty of innovations and technological advancements, made in the other industries. I mean cost-effective mass manufacturing of vital components such as sensors, cameras [and] batteries, as well as new technologies such as 3D-printing – all this makes building of new robotics startups cheaper than ever before. It is also important that these trends give more opportunities for fast-prototyping and gathering user feedback on the earliest possible stage, eventually making more user-oriented products with clear applications – that’s exactly what personal robotics needs for further growth.”
At the very least, iRobot could make a small fortune selling manically depressed hoover robots with the brain the size of a planet to fans of author Douglas Adams’s The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book.